HOW TO START YOUR OWN CULT at The Bill Murray
★★★
“each comedian individually has some very funny moments”
Cults are a rich and potentially comic goldmine, so it was a slight surprise when it became quickly clear that this show has nothing to do with its title.
How to Start Your Own Cult is a series of character monologues performed by three comedians. In a witty voiceover, the audience is welcomed to a seminar: how to start your own cult, and told that we will have to work hard to find the link between the monologues and the seminar itself. This is a comic way of admitting that there is little to no through line between these sketches. It is funny, but leaves the show feeling disjointed and a bit random. Each of the nine monologues is introduced by its tenuous link to the seminar, for example: people in cults have neighbours, here’s a sketch about neighbours. It’s a fun way to attempt to link the pieces, but it falls a bit flat.
This show is a work in progress, and so shouldn’t be judged as a completely finished product. There are some technical glitches, a few forgotten lines and some nervous pauses, but none of that matters. What does matter, is the issue of a lack of cohesion and coherence.
It is crucial to say, each comedian individually has some very funny moments. Ben Goldsmith does a series of sketches about biblical figures, each with an increasingly outlandish accent. My favourite is his vision of the tiger, awaiting her turn on Noah’s arc, getting her nails done. His sketches are funny, slick and work well together. Though they feel a tonally a bit off with the other comics’ work.
Kate Davison re-enacts her character’s gritty, but out of touch documentary about modern Britain. This is a great idea, and the character she has built is a great blend of satire and self-ridicule. There are moments she could turn it up a few more notches, it doesn’t have the confident ridiculousness of Goldsmith’s sketches, but there is definitely a gem of something, and with a bit of polishing it will work really well.
The third comic, Chris East, performs three very different monologues, combining music, audience interaction, and control over silence. He makes quietly waiting for the correct intro music a golden comedy moment. His sketches are not interlinked with one another, though they all demonstrate his taste for amping up a familiar situation into something weirder, and more surreal. They need a bit of tightening up, and there are some pacing issues, but all three have glittering flashes of comic gold.
Each of the sketches is enjoyable, and it is a broadly amusing hour of comedy, especially for a work in progress. The issue is that the show would work better if there was a stronger link between the pieces, or even no attempt at a link at all.
HOW TO START YOUR OWN CULT at The Bill Murray
Reviewed on 26th August 2023
by Auriol Reddaway
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How to Start Your Own Cult
How to Start Your Own Cult
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